The girl is dressed
in skinny jeans and a halter-top. She marches confidently in her ankle-boots
through the aisles until she gets to the clothing department. The girl slowly
walks past the rack of clothing, trailing her hand on the merchandise,
caressing the fabrics. She comes to the lingerie and stops, takes a pair of
pink panties off the rack and holds it up in admiration.

It is a very small
bikini-cut, though not quite g-string, made from a fleshy-pink sheer fabric and
has a glitter-heart on the crotch. She holds it against her body and wiggles
her hips provocatively.

She turns to her mum,
and says: 'isn't this sexy'?

She is six years old.
(I am guessing.)

The scene is real and
happened recently in a Sydney Discount Department Store.

I feel like crying.

Is the retailer the
drug-pusher and the consumer the addict?

Where did we go
wrong? Who is to blame? Where will it end?

Or am I just getting
old?

The image above is obviously NOT that girl - just an image online. I have however taken the liberty to touch-up the face because I don't want to associate a wrong person with the abovementioned scenario. I therefore also don't want to credit the photo to the source specifically.

But the pose struck in this image raises the same questions I asked above.